‘I’m getting f****d tonight’ – Woman who claims she was raped by Benjamin Mendy ‘messaged friend’, court hears

The court trying Manchester City star, Benjamin Mendy for rape has been told that woman who claimed she was raped three times the footballer messaged a friend on the same night saying, ‘I’m getting f*****d tonight’.

The footballer’s lawyer further claimed the woman, 20, also sent another message to friends saying: ‘If I’m ever going to get pregnant, it’s going to be tonight’.

Eleanor Laws, QC, representing the French international, 28, insisted during cross-examination that sex between the woman and the footballer was consensual.

They also claimed the woman had lied about the £52million defender bragging about sleeping with ‘10,000 women’ during the alleged rape.

Mendy is on trial at Chester Crown Court accused of eight counts of rape, one of attempted rape, and one of assault, relating to seven women. He denies the allegations.

The woman, giving a graphic testimony on Friday, told the jury how Mendy used a ‘fingerprint touchscreen’ to lock her in a bedroom before raping her.

She told the court the star acted like it was a ‘privilege’ to be raped by him, that he boasted about sleeping with thousands of women as he carried out the sex attack and told her: ‘Don’t tell anyone and you can come over every night’.

But in cross-examination, Mendy’s barrister asked if the woman was lying about the incident, which is alleged to have taken place at Mendy’s £3million Cheshire mansion.

The woman insisted: ‘Absolutely not. He said I was shy, that’s when he said about sleeping with 10,000 women.

‘I’m certain. It’s in high definition in my mind. It’s the most traumatic thing that’s happened to me.’

Asked about the impact of the alleged attack, she said: ‘The hardest thing is how many times I said no, it makes me upset. I felt petrified after it happened.’

On the fourth day of the trial, the court heard how the woman had followed the French international into his room after he allegedly snatched her phone from her hands.

She told the court that once inside, Mendy closed the door to the bedroom – which she claimed was fitted with a special locks and could only be entered using fingerprint technology.

She told jurors that after telling Mendy she did not want to have sex with him, he replied: ‘The door is locked anyway’.

The woman provided details of Mendy’s bedroom, claiming that it was lined with wood, had an en suite bathroom and a large bed which had a blue and gold Versace pillow.

She said that Mendy was dressed in chocolate-coloured trousers, a black top and was wearing three diamante chains around his neck.

Giving evidence in the trial, she said: ‘He (Mendy) took my mobile phone off me and I followed him up two flights of stairs to try and get it back.

‘I was saying ‘that’s my phone, I want it back.’ He was going through it looking at private pictures of me that I’ve sent before.

‘He saw pictures of my bum and was saying how much he liked it and he also said he liked my t**s.’

Referring to Mendy’s bedroom, she said: ‘It was a big wooden door that had a black handle like you have in a hotel. It had some kind of touch screen fingerprint thing on it.

‘I followed him in to get my phone then the door shut behind me. I said listen, I want to go home. I don’t want to have sex with you.’

The alleged incident took place in October 2020 after the woman met Mendy and a group of friends in Alderely Edge and was then invited back to his mansion for a party.

She was sitting in the basement of his home close to the swimming pool sending messages on Snapchat when Mendy snatched her phone from her.

The woman revealed that once in the room Mendy asked her to remove her clothing.

She said: ‘He said he just wanted to look at me. He said: ‘I promise, I won’t touch you. I just want to see your t**s.

‘He said again, I promise, I just want to look at you. You can’t get out any way.’

The woman revealed that she reluctantly took off her clothes because she wanted to get her phone back and go home, she was just left standing in a thong.

Mendy then threw her mobile phone onto the bed and as she bent over the pick it up, the footballer grabbed her from behind.

She said: ‘He came around behind me and pushed me on the bed so I was on all fours.

‘I told him: ‘No. I don’t want to have sex with you.’ He said he would not touch me, he just wanted to feel me.

‘I was on all fours with my bum in the air. He was pulling my bum towards him and I kept saying ‘I don’t want to have sex with you.’

The woman revealed that Mendy then moved her thong to one side and first raped her.

She said: ‘He moved my thong to one side. I was trying to wriggle to get free but he had a hold of me. He kept on coming back.’

The woman’s evidence was video recorded and played to a jury of eight men and four women.

She said: ‘I said I don’t want to do that (have sex). I told him that my sister is waiting for me, I need to go, she’s probably looking for me.

‘He had his pants down fully, his top off and three diamante chains around his neck.’

‘He said: ‘You’re too shy. I’ve had sex with 10,000 women.’

The jury heard she was raped three times by Mendy in the next 20 minutes or so, as she told him: ‘I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to have sex with you. I need to go.’

She told the court: ‘My body was so tense. It was just this pain.’

The woman revealed that she met Mendy at a restaurant called Parea in Alderley Edge and that it was a Sunday evening.

Mendy was accompanied by three friends while she was with four female friends and they started chatting and drinking with the footballer’s group.

The woman revealed that at around 10.30 pm as the restaurant was about to close, Mendy and his group invited them back to The Spinney, his mansion.

She told the court that she did not know that Mendy was a Premier League footballer when she first met him at the restaurant.

Following the alleged rape, the woman said that she put on her clothes and Mendy left the bedroom.

She said: ‘I just wanted to stay calm, get out and not cause a scene. I just put on my clothes and went out.’

The woman told the court that she confided in her sister and a colleague about what had taken place at Mendy’s mansion and that she also referred herself to a rape crisis centre as she had suffered trauma.

The next day at work she was waiting for a meeting when a colleague came over.

Mendy’s accuser told police: ‘She just looked at me and said, ‘Is everything all right?’ I just started crying my eyes out. I just said I was in a situation last night. I don’t know what to do but I don’t feel OK about it.’

She added: ‘What makes me really upset is how many times I said no.’

The woman told the officer interviewing her at Macclesfield Police Station that after raping her three times, Mendy said to her: ‘Don’t tell anyone and you can come here every night.’

The day after the alleged rape she got a Snapchat message from Mendy with lots of question marks, and one from Louis Saha Matturie, Mendy’s co-defendant, saying: ‘Are you OK? Please can you call me so we can discuss?’

She took screenshots and blocked both their numbers. Friday afternoon, the woman was cross-examined by Mendy’s lawyers.

Asked to explain why she took her clothes off once in Mendy’s bedroom, the woman replied:

‘He gave me a choice, you can’t leave so take your clothes off. He said ‘I won’t touch you.

‘I was trapped in any way. I made it very clear that I didn’t want anything to do with him. Taking my clothes off was my only choice.’

She added: ‘It’s all absolutely true. He said I was locked in and told me that I was not allowed to leave.

‘He said that I would not be able to leave. He said if you take your clothes off, I promise I will not touch you, I just want to look at you.’

Ms Laws asked the woman why she did not immediately alert her friends following the rape.

The woman revealed that after the attack, she got dressed, went downstairs to join her friends and then asked to leave. It was not until the next day that she confided in a work colleague and her sister about what took place.

Ms Laws said: ‘If you had been raped you would have been out of your wits. But you never said anything, not in the house and not in the car after you left.’

The woman replied: ‘I had not processed it, I just wanted to get home. I was in shock. I didn’t have the words to say that I was raped.’

Ms Laws revealed that on the night the woman met Mendy and his friends in a bar in Alderley Edge, former Manchester United footballer Jessie Lingard was also there.

He was not part of Mendy’s group and was accompanied by another man, who the woman admitted in court, may also have been a United footballer but she was not sure.

Ms. Laws asked her: ‘You were dancing with one of Lingard’s friends?’

The woman replied: ‘Yes.’

Ms. Laws said that the woman was ‘happy’ to be in the company of footballers and messaged one of her friends during the night out saying: ‘I’m sat with footballers.’

Ms. Laws read messages to the court from the woman to friends during the night out, which ended up at Mendy’s mansion.

In one she wrote: ‘I have decided. After my first drink, I’m getting f**ked tonight. Why not?’

In another, she said: ‘If I’m ever going to get pregnant, it’s going to be tonight.’

Mendy is accused of eight counts of rape, one count of attempted rape and one count of sexual assault, relating to seven young women.

Mendy’s co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 41, the footballer’s friend and fixer, meanwhile, denies eight counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault relating to eight young women.